I have a sister?!

They noticed each other! Friday I caught Eve looking intently at Mae and this morning, after everyone had finished breakfast I laid them on the floor by one another and left the room...when I returned it was to find the two of them with their heads turned toward one another, cooing and smiling at each other. Eve even let out a little squeal, a sound she's never made for Randy or me.

I'll try to post video as soon as I catch them at it. It is beyond adorable. My heart already melts when they smile me...I could hardly stand it when they started talking to one another.

Twins rule.

these babies need some culture!

So, we took the babies to their first orchestra & choir concert last night at the high school...I'd been invited by one of my youth. We started off great, just sitting quietly, feeding the babies. But then Eve decided it was a night for her to be fussy, so Randy took her out.

That left me and Mae. Mae decided the choir was missing something so she tried to fill in all of the quiet spots with her little barks. So we left the auditorium, too. In fact, as I type this, she is again trying to convince that I was wrong and no one would have minded her vocalizations. I keep telling her she's still currently tone deaf, but she's not believing me.

But, we tried. The concert was good, the little bit of it I heard and it was good to get out. But apparently these babies are not yet impressed by culture. Silly babies.

can I get a hey-o?

Hey-o!

So, I skipped out early on work today...I was only there for 2.5 hours. IN MY DEFENSE...I worked 35 hours between Friday 5 p.m. and Monday morning, so there. And I am still in physical pain from this weekend. But it's all ok. Why, because I got the power of Jesus. Yep...that's right. Jesus.

Still reading? I'm impressed. After all, religion, especially personal witness stories are something our society tends to look away from out of embarrassment or disinterest. And, I'm pretty much the same. Unless it's one of my teenagers talking, I'm not big on searching out people's personal testimonies about their relationship with Christ.

But this weekend was great and I need to write about it because I want to preserve a bit of it. The retreat this weekend, Youth 2000, was good. It was a bunch of really intense Catholic stuff. But the important thing is that some of the kids who attended truly felt Jesus present with us and it changed their lives.

They feel the purpose they have now in this world. They know it's not just a bunch of mumbo jumbo. I don't know how many people read this blog, and it doesn't really matter, but I'm sure some people who read it think religion is ridiculous and Catholicism is the root of all the world's evil.

Not true.

Religion/Faith is good. It's the people who sin and screw it up. Ok, not all religion is good. Obviously cults can be dangerous. But, that's again dependent on the people who practice the faith. The Catholic faith, truly followed and explained, is beautiful. Over the past five years as I've gotten to know the faith and not just the stereotypes I have been able to see that. And there are a lot of incorrect stereotypes and a LOT of misconceptions, even among us Catholics about our faith.

So, seeing 250-300 high school kids being able to be in a positive experience with their faith is powerful.

But, sitting on a gym floor for 10 hours or kneeling on that same floor for six or seven hours over the course of a day does nothing to my body but remind me how old I'm getting. I feel 70 years old today. MAN, I'm creaking and cracking, and aching and pills are doing nothing.

It's funny, even as I type this entry I'm censoring because I'm worried about what people will think of me after reading it. Will they dismiss me as another lunatic Jesus freak? If we're friends will that relationship begin to diminish?

It's interesting how typing this and publishing it into the great void that it the internet can have the potential for a profound effect...or none whatsoever. But, the effect I saw this weekend of those students being able to see their faith as the most important things in their lives was beautiful.

After all...at it's absolute simplest Catholicism is about love. Jesus taught us to love God and love one another. Love is the meaning of life. Love is beautiful. Love is not simple, though. But from love comes peace. And peace is beautiful.

The world has never truly given peace a chance. All those who throughout history have preached love and peace have been killed because there are those who feel it is a dangerous message. It's not dangerous, but it is radical.

Love and peace are also counter-cultural. We are taught by advertising and etc. that our goal is to be selfish and listen to what everyone else is doing. What is important is the exact opposite. We need to reach out to one another. To truly have neighbors. To know the people in our lives. To love them. Not like. Not tolerate, but LOVE. Love our friends, love our neighbors, but even more importantly - love those who are different from us. It is easy to love those who love you back. But what about those who are different from us? It is more difficult and more necessary.

LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

What a beautiful concept.

church babies

So, both my husband and I work for the Catholic Church (wait, don't go running for the hills, we're not creepy about it, it's really just a way to hang out and teach kids without having to get a teaching degree...) And because of this we, obviously, spend a great deal of time at our respective churches. Consequently, so do our babies.

These babies (and, by proxy, us) have been so blessed and anticpated and taken care of by these two amazing communities. The saying 'it takes a village' is beyond true in our case. Before the babies were born I had help from our families in setting up whenever I had class. My parents volunteered to chaperones events and on trips so I wouldn't have to go (even though I usually really enjoy it). Since the babies have arrived we've been inundated with well wishes.

We didn't cook the first month the girls were alive. People at both parishes organized meals for us, plus our fellow youth ministers at other parishes brought food. What an amazing thing. It meant we didn't have to resort to cereal and toast, but could have a great meal of cowboy casserole and spend time with our babies.

Gift-wise, it was almost embarassing. People are so generous. We have so many lovely soft blankets, adorable outfits (Randy and I haven't needed to buy anything), books - shelves of them already, and everything else we could want or need for our babies.

Everyday I give thanks to God for these amazing parish families we have been gifted with. Families who offer to watch the girls for an evening, high schol girls offering to babysit when we need it, offers of help in any way shape and form.

Yes, whenever we go to church we draw a croud, but I feel it's only proper thank you. I let these babies be passed around. I hand them over to our priests to give myeslf a free moment. I let the girls of our parish coo over them. I take them to committee meetings, mass, class. Anything and everything. They can't be pastors' kids b/c we're catholic, but they're the next best thing.

And it has made our first three months with the girls wonderful. I think because they're out so much (thinking about the past two week - these little babies are only home 2-3 nights/week) they get tired and they get to meet all kinds of new people and be out in groups of people and since they don't want to miss anything they tend to stay up and not really nap.

We somehow got lucky and have managed to sleep-train them without crying it out all on our own. Now, I know things are liable to change, but for almost two months now they've slept 5-6 hours a night together. We feed them around 11 p.m., swaddle them and put them in the crib. Within 10 minutes they're asleep and they stay that way until 6 or so, depending on when exactly we put them down. I know that's unusual but it is greatly apperciated.

These silly babies are so wonderful. And we get to show them off to Grandma and Grandpa Hansen tonight for a fish fry! The girls' first Wisconsin fish fry! Fun times!

a giggle, an honest to goodness giggle

Last night, during the half hour Randy and I were actually home together Eve laughed twice! Randy was playing with and she laughed! haha! What a beautiful sound!

Mae is starting to talk more now, as well, though Eve still has the market cornered. Mae's my smiler, still. I love how different they are!

And, because I don't feel like typing any more right now I'll just post photos from this morning's smile session.

Can you say 'mama'?

I'm already working on the girls, since usually the first word is 'dada' simply because it's easier to make alveolar sounds than bilabial (see, I AM using my linguistics deree!) Of course, Randy's first word was 'agua', so who knows.

But they are talking so much every day now...by talking I actually mean cooing and gurling. Eve even does back-and-forth talk with both Randy and I. Mae is more content to let out a little bark of noise now and again, but she breaks it smiles constantly.

Yesterday morning Eve was in a good mood and I put her back in the crib while I got ready...when I came back out she was captivated by the mobile over their bed and was smiling at it. Right now Eve is chillin like a baby villian in her boppy while Mae is resting briefly in her bouncy seat. Lovely little things.

I need to start going to bed at a decent hour...I've been staying up until midnght so that I can spend some meaningful time with my husband once he gets home around 10 p.m., but screw that, I need some sleep. Thankfully, the babes are still regularly sleeping until 6 a.m., which is beyond fabulous, but sleep is a good thing.

It's raining again, which is fine, except I feel bad for the farmers. The ground hasn't yet completely thawed AND the water tables are still full from the past year and a half so there's no where for the water to go. It's just sitting in the fields.

Ok. To work!

the Watchmen

Watchmen.

A short review.

I love superheroes. ALways have. When I was a little girl I wore my Wonder woman undershirt and underwear every day. Mom had to take the shirt off me when I was asleep and wash it during the night.

I religiously watched 'Lois & Clark', even when it got really bad and cheesy. I watched Batman: The Animated Series cartoons and always went to see the summer blockbuster movies.

Apparently I am a DC kinda girl, since I started out with Wonder Woman, moved onto Superman in my teens, and have been a Batman fan since my early twenties. Now I'm becoming more interested in Nightwing (a.k.a. Dick Grayson, the first Robin) and I'm actually planning to start reading comic books.

Randy informs me this would officially make me the coolest wife on the planet. Apparently playing video games and reading comic books, among other things, rank pretty high on the cool list.

But, in any case, what prompted this post was seeing 'Watchmen' last night. I'd heard great things about the graphic novel and, as stated, love superhero movies. Plus, despite my initial fears I LOVED 300 and this is done by the same director, so I figured we should see it.

And it was ok. Story wise it's definitely dense and I understand the term 'unfilmable' that was given it. There were several times during the film I felt as things were flying over my head. But, the other thing, (and this is staying true to the original story), is that the Watchmen were not good people. Well, not all of them.

But in stark contrast to Superman/Clark Kent, who is goodness embodied and even Batman, who has his no guns/no kill rule, the Watchmen are gritty almost anti-heroes. True vigilantes who have taken the law into their own hands. Now, obviously, Rorschach and the Comedian take it too far and and certainly more the anti-hero than Dr. Manhattan and Ozymandias and certainly more than Silk Spectre and Nite Owl, but the only character I really liked was Nite Owl. The rest had such character flaws that, to a certain extent, I agreed with Nixon (ah!) that they should be stopped.

BTW - the names and costumes for the watchmen were lame. Nite Owl? Seriously? Silk Spectre? the Comedian? and some of the original Minutemen names were goofy as well. Now, I know that 'Batman', Green Lantern, Red Hood, Nightwing, etc. aren't exactly the coolest names, but they were just kinda of lame ideas for heroes. Which, from the limited research I've done since seeing the movie last night, sort of is backed up.

These people became heroes because the criminals started wearing masks, so they figured they might as well, too, to even the playing field. It's an interesting take, since, other than Dr. Manhattan, none of them are metas (have special powers). However, the reason Batman continues to be my favorite superhero is that he doesn't have any powers.

I mean, the man is invited to joint he Justice League without powers. With Superman and Wonder Woman he basically runs it. How awesome is that? Seriously.

So, besides that, the movie was, at times, a little too graphic for my tastes. Although I do still consider '300' war porn, the violence was strictly historical and fantasy. This film is much more gritty and uses modern-weapons, like guns, knives, etc. And it has violence against women and children, which I never do well with.

All in all, I'm glad I saw it, but I'll stick with the caped crusader and the rest of the Bat family, occasionally straying back to original superhero...Superman.

I dig blue tights.

Great Friday

great date! What a good day yesterday was. I got to spend all the day with my girls, visit the other twins, go on a date with my husband and then get a full night's sleep. Wowzer!

The girls and I played all morning yesterday. I can't believe how long they stay up now, almost as though they're avoiding taking naps. However, if the end result is a six-seven hour stretch of sleep I'm not going to complain.

We visited Callie and the twins yesterday afternoon as well, which was fun since now all four of them are up and doing things. Max has a huge little baby belly that's adorable! And Dexter stretches just like Mae and makes cute little squeals a lot. Man, I love those afternoons when Callie, me, and all four babies get together. It'll be great in a couple more months when they actually become aware of each and can play. And Callie and I both bought the Thing 1 and Thing 2 onesies for our twins...we'll all wear them some day this summer, possibly at the farmer's market and be cute beyond words! What I like most about having Callie around is that she's gong through exactly the same thing; our twins were born 5 days apart. It's just nice having someone else whose experiences are so shared this close by. I'll miss them terribly if they decide to move to California this summer.

And then the date. God bless Meaghan and Carl, because it was exactly what Randy and I needed. We went out to Pizzeria Uno and saw Watchmen. And over dinner we didn't really talk about our babies. We talked about other people's babies, but not talk about work or babies, which impressed us both. And made me feel really good about us and where we are in our marriage post-babies. Yes, everything has changed, but in the best possible way.

There are still multiple times I look at Randy and the way we plays with our babies, or takes care of them, or looks at me when I'm holding them both and I just know I married the right man. He's always been a great husband, but as a father I am blown away. It is so amazing to see him as a daddy. We were thrown an incredible curveball with the twins, but, given the circumstances I think we're doing very well.

The movie last night was ok, but when we got home the girls were dozing, so we woke them up, fed them, swaddled them and put them in the crib, where they stayed for six and a half hours. Amazing babies. Just what mommy and daddy needed.

And now today we have more company coming. I think Randy and I have forgotten what a quiet life looks like.

Tales from twin land

Randy and I have a date this Friday! A real, honest to goodness, get of the house for dinner and a movie date. We haven't done that since I was five months pregnant. A friend and her fiance are coming over to play house Friday night...I don't actually mean that as condescending as it sounds. If anything, babysitting twins is about the best birth control there is. This, too, could happen to you!

I'm thrilled at the prospect of being able to get through a meal with Randy where our arms are empty of baby. I love my babies, but they're kinda near-constant on the attention scale. So, dinner out and the Watchmen. Yes! Superhero movie!

I LOVE superhero movies. I'm not quite sure why that is, but I always have. Probably part of it is because I don't enjoy realistic violence but, if there's a guy in cape and tights running around it's obviously an alternate reality and therefore not real. I mean, I enjoyed 300 and that was terribly violent. But yeah, superhero movie! Batman has always been by favorite superhero...well, except for a couple years in the early 90's when Superman eclipsed him, but hey, Dean Cain was VERY cute in blue tights!

I think the odds of us falling asleep during the movie are fairly high. It's 2 hours 40 minutes in the dark. The only reason I think we may not is because action movies tend to be loud, but then, I've lately been falling asleep to Batman Begins, and that's a loud movie, so who knows.

Susan, whose twins are 18, said she and her husband feel asleep during a play during one of their first dates. Though, with the way the girls are sleeping I think we're getting more sleep than even parents of single babies at this point. Last night Mae slept from 11:30 p.m.-6:30 a.m. without a meal or diaper change. And she seems fine. Eve slept 11:30 p.m.- 4:30 a.m....I'm nervous about it and yet...they wake themselves up when they need to. During the day they are very active and eat normal amounts of food. Maybe we lucked out in the sleep department.

In any case, I've got a date Friday night with a very good-looking man. And I'm sure I won't miss my babies too much...right?

Better

Not to say that prayers are always answered, or even answered when we feel we need them, but I do believe God knows and cares for what is best for us and, in that regard, I had a prayer answered Thursday night.



My last post was written Thursday and the angst was clearly present. As I trudged in the door that evening, prepared to kiss Randy hello and goodbye in the same moment he held Eve in his arms with a big smile on his face.



"Kathryn has the stomach flu. Isn't that great?"



Now, generally this news is greeted with some sadness or empathy for the way the poor woman must be feeling, but my first reaction caused my face to mirror that of my husband. I took the baby from him and smiled back. "That is great news."



"And the roads are too bad for the kids to come for training, so I have no where to go. Let's order chinese and hang out tonight."



I smiled a little hugged him tightly. "That sounds fabulous."



So, an hour later we were stuffed to the gills with sweet and sour chicken, each of us holding a baby on our laps and grinning at each other like goofy teenagers. What a difference a night together makes! We didn't do anything out of the ordinary. We sat by each other in the living and played with our babies, watched a movie and talked a little. And it was perfection.



It was what we both desperately needed. So, for answered prayers - a heartfelt thank you.